


Waiting By

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [448]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, Hospitalization, Injury, Support, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 02:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11049405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: Pepper never wanted to be here, waiting at a loved one's bedside.





	Waiting By

Natasha has been unconscious for three days.

No one will tell her quite what happened, but it’s obvious it involved some sort of explosion, a multi-story fall, and concrete. Natasha was in surgery for seven hours and is still unconscious, and they won’t even talk with Pepper about moving her out of Germany and back to New York yet.

Clint squeezes her shoulder. “She’s tough, you know,” he says. “She’ll pull through.”

Clint’s clearly not used to talking to civilians, because Pepper had been firmly not thinking about the potential reality where Natasha might not pull through, it had been a neatly and brutally suppressed thought, she does not need to acknowledge the potential of that reality…

“Hey. Clint. Get us some coffee?” Tony interrupts her thoughts, and after a moment, Clint shuffles out. Tony sits in the uncomfortable hospital chair right next to hers and takes her free hand, the one not carefully holding Natasha’s.

“She’ll be alright,” he reiterates. “Clint’s an idiot but he’s right about that. Natasha’s…well, you know how she is. Nothing’ll keep her down, not for long. She’s probably, like, lulling us all into a false sense of security right now, waiting for the best moment to strike, when we all let our guard down, and…” He trails off. “I’ll talk to Clint. Teach him how to talk to civilians.”

Pepper takes a deep, shaky breath. “No,” she murmurs. “I…I mean, that’s reality, isn’t it? They reality you all…they…we all live with. Natasha has a dangerous job and she never lied to me about that, I need to acknowledge that, and I…”

“Yeah,” Tony interrupts. “Yeah, her job is dangerous. She’s dangerous. Yeah, she does stupid stuff because she can and no one else can and someone has to. But you know what? I know she does her goddamn best to come home to you, every time, Pep. And this time’ll be no different.”

He squeezes her hand. “Gonna go talk to those doctors, figure out what we need to do to get her back to New York,” he says. “You just…talk to her. That helps, right? Pretty sure I read that helps coma patients.”

He leaves and the hand he was holding feels bereft, so she wraps it too around Natasha’s hand, both of her hands clasping Natasha’s. It’s a little swollen, bruised a bit, but Pepper knows these hands, dainty and gentle with her and so, so competent. Deadly, when they need to be.

“I’m waiting for you,” Pepper says. “It’s goddamn hard but I am not going anywhere, I made a choice ages ago and apparently I’m only realizing it now, but I’m going to be here. Even on days like this, when it’s terrible and it hurts. I’m…waiting, as long as you’re coming back,” she says.

Part of her brain is already focusing on what arrangements Tony must be trying to make, figuring out the logistics and where he’ll need her, what he can do, what actions she can take. Clint, as Natasha’s medical proxy, will be needed to agree and sign off on everything. They’ll need to do a screening, get an in-house nurse for constant care at the very least until Natasha’s awake, maybe after. And then the specialists who might be required…

She shakes her head. Tony can sort that out for at the very least the next half hour. Until then, she has a hand to hold and a girlfriend who needs her here.


End file.
